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San Francisco offered Treasure Island, which offers scenic views in the middle of San Francisco bay, as a home that the museum would have had virtually to itself.

Museum organizers said: 'We have been humbled by the overwhelmingly positive support we received from both San Francisco and Los Angeles during our selection process.'

Lucas is financing the project by himself. It is expected to cost upwards of $1billion

It will house an extensive personal collection that includes 40,000 paintings including some by Norman Rockwell, illustrations and film-related items.

Items to be displayed from his film collection include storyboards and costumes from films 'The Wizard of Oz,' 'Casablanca,' 'The Ten Commandments' and of course 'Star Wars.'

LA seemed a fit for Lucas, and not just because of its film industry legacy.

He is an alumnus of the film school at the University of Southern California, which is right across the street from the museum site.

The new museum will be in Exposition Park, which includes attractions such as the California Science Center and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, pictured

But Lucas has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for most of his life, and it was home to Lucasfilm until the Walt Disney Company bought it in 2012.

He did, however, encounter opposition in 2010 when he hoped to build the museum in the Presidio of San Francisco, a large park.

What could have been: San Francisco's Treasure Island could have been the site of Lucas's new museum

A design for the museum on Treasure Island is seen in an artist's impression above

His hopes to put the museum in Chicago were also thwarted when community group Friends of the Parks objected to his plan to build his museum along Lake Michigan.

LA Mayor Eric Garcetti said: 'Millions of Angelenos and visitors will enjoy an extraordinary collection anchored in storytelling - an art that carries so much meaning in the history and legacy of Los Angeles.'

He added to the Los Angeles Times: ''It's a natural place to have this museum in the creative capital of the world and in the geographic center of the city.

'It's a banner day for LA.'

Art historian Don Bacigalupi will be the museum's first president.

Art historian Don Bacigalupi will be the museum's first president. Pictured: Steven Spielberg and George Lucas at a gala for the University of Southern California's Shoah Foundation

In addition to its two major museums, Exposition Park is home to the LA Memorial Coliseum, where the USC Trojans and Los Angeles Rams play football, and an under-construction stadium for a new Major League Soccer team.

A light rail line that opened just last year connects the park with downtown Los Angeles and the beaches to the West.

The project also comes amid a museum boom in Los Angeles that includes The Broad, a buzzing new contemporary art museum downtown.

And it makes Southern California the definitive home base of the Star Wars galaxy, with Disney having bought the rights to the franchise.

The company is building a Star Wars-themed land within its Magic Kingdom in Anaheim.